GUILTY UK - Kempsey, found in a septic tank, Jul'19, missing in 1982 - Brenda Venables *husband arrested*

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Jurors at Worcester Crown Court have already heard details of Venables’ “on-off” 14-year affair with now-dead mother-of-three Lorraine Styles, including how he visited his mistress to have sex just days after his wife vanished.


Police officers involved in the “high-profile” search for Mrs Venables after she disappeared in May 1982 described how dogs, boats and a helicopter were used to scour local waterways, fields, woodland and farm outbuildings.

Retired West Mercia Police constable Peter Sharrock was among the search teams but told how the septic tank was apparently overlooked by those looking for 48-year-old Mrs Venables.

Mr Sharrock said he was not aware any officers searched the underground chamber, adding: “I certainly never took part in searching the septic tank.

“I walked past it to get to the river area for searches.”

He added: “Nobody mentioned searching the tank.”

He described how 2019 media coverage about the discovery of human remains triggered a memory of what he now knew to have been the cesspit.

At the time, it just looked like a pad (area) of concrete and I didn't pay it any attention. The word is hindsight, really
Click to expand...
Mr Sharrock, retired Pc
In his statement, read to court on Thursday, he said: “I am aware from recent newspaper reports a body has been found in a septic tank.

“As soon as I saw an aerial view of the site, I remembered that I’d seen then, what I saw now.”
www.asianimage.co.uk

Septic tank where body found ‘not searched’ in 1982, murder trial told

David Venables is accused of murdering his wife Brenda, whose body was found on their farm.
www.asianimage.co.uk www.asianimage.co.uk
 
There was a court session yesterday, but no reports that I can find in the press. Are we back to restrictions again? (and why would that be?)

June 20:

3​
T20217099​
david venables​
Details:Trial (Part Heard) - Resume - 10:40
Trial (Part Heard) - No Event - 11:07
Trial (Part Heard) - Case adjourned until 12:00 - 11:39
Trial (Part Heard) - Witness Number 11 Continues - 12:01
Trial (Part Heard) - Witness Number 12 Sworn - 12:36
Trial (Part Heard) - Case adjourned until 14:00 - 13:04
Trial (Part Heard) - Resume - 14:03
Trial (Part Heard) - Witness evidence concluded - 14:11
Trial (Part Heard) - Witness Number 13 Sworn - 14:20
Trial (Part Heard) - Legal Submissions - 14:57
Trial (Part Heard) - No Event - 14:47
Trial (Part Heard) - Case adjourned until 15:20 - 15:00
Trial (Part Heard) - Resume - 15:21
Trial (Part Heard) - Legal Submissions - 15:52
Trial (Part Heard) - Case adjourned until 10:40 - 16:17


I can't find a session with David Venables for today yet, although the trial would have been adjourned until 10.40 at 16.17 hrs yesterday afternoon.
 
Warning court cases will be heavily delayed as barristers announce strike action

WORCESTER Crown Court is set for heavy disruption in the coming weeks after barristers announced they were going on strike over legal aid funding.

Several days of court walkouts will begin from next week and cases at which barristers are required will likely have to be postponed - including crown court trials.

Worcester Crown Court is already facing significant backlogs due to the Covid pandemic.
Another issue, unique to Worcester, is that it has the additional workload of Hereford Shirehall which has been out of action for two years due to part of its ceiling collapsing.
The strike action is intended to last for four weeks, beginning with walkouts on Monday and Tuesday (June 27 and 28) increasing by one day each week until a five-day strike between July 18 and July 22.

Among the cases set to be affected is the trial of David Venables who is accused of murdering his wife Brenda in 1982.

That trial began last week and is expected to last six weeks.

Judge Martin Jackson was among the judges explaining to defendants why their cases are being heavily delayed on Monday, (June 20).


BBM
 
Delays to trial of man accused of killing wife whose body was in septic tank

THE jury hearing the trial of David Venables were released early after the judge told them “a matter had arisen”.



The case was not heard on Tuesday, and the jury arrived in courtroom three of Worcester Crown Court on Wednesday morning (June 22) expecting for it to resume.

But at the start of the hearing the judge, Mrs Justice Amanda Tipples, told the jury: “I’m afraid something has arisen this morning that means we cannot proceed today.”

The judge said the 89-year-old was not in the courtroom, adding: “Please don’t hold that against him”.

The jury were told the trial will resume on Friday morning, (June 22), when Michael Burrows QC will continue with the prosecution’s case.


BBM
 
Police search for vanished farmer’s wife in 1982 was delayed, murder jury told

At Venables’ trial on Friday, a retired West Mercia Police superintendent revealed searches for missing Mrs Venables were held up after a constable advised Venables to “report it later, if she had (still) not returned”.

Venables had gone to the police house in Kempsey village some time on the morning of May 4, 1982, and, following the officer’s advice, did not try again to report his wife missing until 7.30pm that same day, when it was logged.
By then it was “too late” to mount a full search in daylight for Mrs Venables, according to then superintendent James Ashley.
Partial local searches of the farmhouse did start that evening, with dog handlers scouring the house grounds and nearby woods before failing light stopped them.

Mr Ashley, who retired in 1993, said in a statement read to court that “it appears that I was unhappy with the officer’s actions” after the constable had advised Venables to wait to make the formal missing report.
The retired senior officer put his displeasure down to the fact the constable had noted that he “considered Brenda Venables might have considered suicide”.
“I cannot recall how that hypothesis came to be considered,” added Mr Ashley.
In a critical report, written on May 5, 1982, to the local inspector, he said: “He (Venables) eventually reported it again at 7.30pm – too late to engage a search – but one now engaged.

“I wish to know who spoke to David Venables and why the missing persons report was not accepted at that time.”
In a report two days later, he said: “I have spoken to the constable and advised him of my views.”

Explaining the effect of the delay to court, Mr Ashley, in his statement, said with the report not formally filed until 7.30pm, the superintendent’s shift had by then ended.
He only found out about missing Mrs Venables when he clocked in the following morning, and “commenced enquiries myself” adding “I must assume this was because of how the matter was initially dealt with”.

Mr Ashley said he was never aware of a septic tank or whether it was searched.
Searches continued on and off, over land, with a police launch used on nearby waterways and, by air, using a hired Bell 47 helicopter.

In 1983, Detective Chief Inspector Roger Morris – now retired – who had had no previous involvement with the case, carried out a case review and asked Venables into his office.
“He presented himself as a typical gentleman farmer, he said words to the effect of ‘I’ll do whatever I can to help’,” said Mr Morris, in a statement.
“He was calm, even when I asked him if he was involved in his wife’s death.”

Venables, of Elgar Drive, Kempsey, denies murdering his wife between May 2 and May 5 1982, and the trial, scheduled to last six weeks, continues.


BBM
 
Jury told of claim Fred West ‘responsible’ for death of wife found in cesspit

On Friday, the jury heard accounts of the police’s interviews with Venables, after he was arrested in 2019 on suspicion of murdering his wife, nearly 40 years after she vanished.


“One thing did happen,” Venables told police.


“A lady rang me up – I vaguely knew her, actually, she used to keep house with a friend I knew – she said Fred West picked her up in Worcester at a bus stop early one morning, and she managed to escape.


“I wondered since whether he was responsible for picking her (Mrs Venables) up and eventually disposing of her body.”


The police then asked Venables: “Who was that lady (who rang you)?”


“I can’t tell you, I can’t even remember what her name was,” said Venables.


“The friend she kept house with died three to four years ago.”

He also told officers his wife had been “depressed” at the couple being unable to have children, but that she appeared “normal” on the night of May 3, 1982, when he has claimed she vanished.


Venables, then 49, said the couple had watched a report about the Falklands War on the television news, and his wife had been playing with the couple’s new West Highland terrier.

He claimed to have last seen his wife of 22 years “in bed”, after she had changed into her nightdress.


“When I woke the next morning she wasn’t in bed.


“I went to look and she had just disappeared.”


Venables was asked by interviewing officers about any personal effects she had left behind, with him recalling she had removed her engagement ring – and placed it on the bedside table.

Asked where it now was, Venables said: “I gave it to Mrs Morgan’s daughter, probably three to four years ago.


“Mr and Mrs Morgan – I went to school with her father – so I thought, just let her have it.


“They were good friends.”


“The ring wasn’t valuable,” he added, although he “didn’t know” how much the band, made of gold with a diamond, had cost, though Venables had recalled the couple had gone “together to buy it”.


The interviewing officer then asked: “Why would you give a ring away which had so much sentimental value – your wife had gone missing and you gave her ring away?”


Venables replied: “Well it (the disappearance) was over 30 years ago.


“I thought about selling it, but didn’t.”


BBM



One wonders what Mrs Morgan's daughter thought of that ring at the time and what she is thinking now.... :oops:
 
ZaZara said:
One wonders what Mrs Morgan's daughter thought of that ring at the time and what she is thinking now.... :oops:
Click to expand...

I'd love to know what a forensic psychologist would make of an alleged murderer giving the victims ring away to a friend's daughter and selling a farm complete with a legacy in the septic tank to a relative.

It's along the lines of game playing, power, risk and the intent of being able to affect specific others from beyond the grave, not foreseeing a demise in this mortal world.
 
The trial of David Venables, accused of killing his wife Brenda in 1982, resumed with evidence from Trevor Brooks, who ran a piggery owned by Mr Venables and his brother Peter at the time Mrs Venables went missing.

He told the court when Brenda Venables went missing, neither he nor his colleagues on the farm were asked by David Venables to join in the search for her. [...]

He added the subject of Mrs Venables' disappearance had not been discussed by them in the years after it happened.

He said: "It never came up."

Farm workers "were not asked" to help find missing wife - trial hears
 
In one of his police interviews, read out to a jury on Friday, Venables told officers: "I was absolutely devastated when I couldn't find her. She had never done anything like that before."

When he went downstairs he said he had noticed the front door and the porch door were both open.

Venables was also quizzed about his 14-year 'sexual relationship' with Lorraine Styles which happened during his marriage.

"I wouldn't call it an affair - it was quite casual," he said.

An officer replied: "Having sex with a woman over a 14-year period, I think she would say that's some sort of relationship. That's not casual."

[...]

He added: "She (Lorriane Styles) just rang me out of the blue and said 'will you come and see me?' I used to take pity on her and just go."

He denied he had been seeing Mrs Styles at the time his wife disappeared.

Murder accused says 14 year relationship with mistress was 'not an affair'
 
A pig farmer who allegedly dumped his dead wife in a septic tank asked police "are you sure these bones are my wife's?"

In transcripts of police interviews Venables asked officers: "What evidence have you got?

He said he cleaned the tank out two or three times between 1961 and 1982 and once between 1982 and when he sold the house in 2014.

Venables told police: "There was absolutely nothing in there when I emptied it. If something was in there it would be perfectly obvious."



www.mirror.co.uk

Pig farmer accused of dumping wife in septic tank 'quizzed police over bones'

David Venables, 89, is accused of murdering his wife Brenda in 1982 and hiding her body in an underground cesspit in Kempsey where they were found almost 40 years later
www.mirror.co.uk www.mirror.co.uk
 
The prosecution closed its case at Worcester Crown Court.



Reading out the statement of facts to the jury, prosecutors read out notes from Mrs Venables' medical history.

Mrs Venables was shown "little or no affection" by her husband.

Brenda Venables had told doctors of her unhappy marriage.
This included visits to both her GP and a consultant psychiatrist.
In those meetings Mrs Venables had said she was depressed due to not being able to conceive children and her husband's multiple affairs.
She reportedly told her psychiatrist, a Dr Richards, that she and her husband had not had sex since 1969 and were sleeping separately.
There were several occasions in which doctors tried to make appointments to see the couple together, but Mr Venables repeatedly said he was too busy or outright refused to speak.

Despite this, when he was interviewed by the police, David Venables claimed their marriage had been ordinary and that they were still sleeping together.

Dr Richards reportedly tried to have Brenda Venables hospitalised some time before her death, saying she was depressed and needed treatment, but according to notes read out in court, the move was blocked by her husband.


Dr Richards called him a "typical farmer - displaying little to no affection to his wife, but showering praise on the family dog".



www.worcesternews.co.uk

Murder accused showed "little or no affection" to wife before disappearance

A WOMAN who disappeared in 1982 had been suffering from depression after her marriage broke down, jurors heard.
www.worcesternews.co.uk www.worcesternews.co.uk
 
Alyce said:
The prosecution closed its case at Worcester Crown Court.



Reading out the statement of facts to the jury, prosecutors read out notes from Mrs Venables' medical history.

Mrs Venables was shown "little or no affection" by her husband.

Brenda Venables had told doctors of her unhappy marriage.
This included visits to both her GP and a consultant psychiatrist.
In those meetings Mrs Venables had said she was depressed due to not being able to conceive children and her husband's multiple affairs.
She reportedly told her psychiatrist, a Dr Richards, that she and her husband had not had sex since 1969 and were sleeping separately.
There were several occasions in which doctors tried to make appointments to see the couple together, but Mr Venables repeatedly said he was too busy or outright refused to speak.

Despite this, when he was interviewed by the police, David Venables claimed their marriage had been ordinary and that they were still sleeping together.

Dr Richards reportedly tried to have Brenda Venables hospitalised some time before her death, saying she was depressed and needed treatment, but according to notes read out in court, the move was blocked by her husband.


Dr Richards called him a "typical farmer - displaying little to no affection to his wife, but showering praise on the family dog".



www.worcesternews.co.uk

Murder accused showed "little or no affection" to wife before disappearance

A WOMAN who disappeared in 1982 had been suffering from depression after her marriage broke down, jurors heard.
www.worcesternews.co.uk www.worcesternews.co.uk
Click to expand...
Not much wriggle room for Mr Venables!
 
Murder-accused farmer fell for wife over ‘sandwiches and trifle’, jury told

Venables, giving evidence for the first time in his defence on Wednesday, told how he met his “good-looking” wife-to-be at Droitwich Winter Gardens, during a Worcester and Kidderminster Young Farmers club social in 1957, when he was 25 and she was 23.

He told jurors: “We probably danced together and we all got common friends, and I think there was usually refreshments as well, so we joined together and got to know one another.
“There’d be drinks. Usually sandwiches and trifle.”

Asked by his barrister, Timothy Hannam QC, what had “turned his head” towards her, Venables replied: “She was always very pleasant.

“And whenever you went out she was always good company, and we just got on well together.”
He added she was “very good-looking (and) just generally appealing”.

(...)

The couple were married on June 1 1960 at Brenda’s local parish church in Rushock, before honeymooning in Jersey for a week.
Venables’ father had given land at Quaking House Farm – which he had set aside to build his own retirement property – to the oldest of his two sons, Venables, to build a marital home.
The property, in Bestmans Lane, was finished shortly after the wedding and boasted a “magnificent view” of the surrounding countryside, and the couple moved in in around February 1961.
Venables, who supervised the build, told the jury he had the septic tank built in the grounds of the house.


BBM
 
"He said that six years after marrying Mrs Venables on June 1 1960, he became “friendly” with Ms Styles, who also lived in Kempsey.

Ms Styles had initially worked at the family’s farm nursery, but became a carer for Venables’ mother and grandmother – and met the pig farmer when he started giving her lifts home.

Asked by his barrister, Timothy Hannam QC, if the relationship with Ms Styles became sexual, Venables replied: “Yes – which I very much regretted.”

[...]

Venables said: “She came to my house one day quite unannounced and said, ‘Now you’re on your own I can come live with you’.

“I said, ‘Well that’s never going to happen’.

“In fact she used a lot of verbal abuse to me, and got in her car, and drove away at great speed down the drive.”

[...]

Recalling the night he last saw his wife, he said the family had been sowing potatos in a field on May 3 – a bank holiday Monday.

Earlier, Mrs Venables “seemed to be enjoying playing with the puppy” on the hearth rug and he noticed nothing unusual in her mood that evening, or after they went to bed.

But asked if she was “there next to you” when he awoke at 6.30am the following morning, he replied: “No, not when I woke up.”

Farmer accused of wife’s septic tank murder tells jury he ‘regretted’ affair
 
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